Chris Wheeler

THANK YOU, Phillies! I have found the cure for my insomnia. Whenever I can't fall asleep, I play back Chris Wheeler and Larry Andersen's coverage of the Phillies game. I'm usually then snoring in about five minutes. To wake up, I have my alarm set to the voice of Harry Kalas, and I'm up refreshed, and ready for a brand-new day. Bruce Semigran Norristown

WASHINGTON - Just before noon today, Harry Kalas got off the Phillies team bus and walked into the visiting clubhouse at Nationals Park. As always, Kalas said something nice to everyone he encountered, then stopped, pulled out a pen and wrote down the lineup which had been posted on the wall. Lineup in hand, the Hall of Fame broadcaster rode the elevator to the press level and began preparing for a 3 p.m. game between the Phillies and Washington Nationals. He never got to call the game.

Harry Kalas is in town and says he feels wanted. So, exhale. There has been speculation that the Phillies could be slowly trying to push Kalas, their Hall of Fame broadcaster, out of the booth. His contract expires after the season. How would the Phillies do it? Apparently, by pairing him for six innings on TV this season with Chris Wheeler, with whom he has a strained relationship. But the Phillies have said that their 2006 broadcasting lineup hasn't been set, and that they have no behind-the-scenes plans to cut Kalas loose after the season.

The Phillies say they have the team they want on the field. Now they just need their Hall of Fame broadcaster. Harry Kalas opened and closed Veterans Stadium, and he said late last night that he plans to open Citizens Bank Park on April 12 when the Phillies debut their new ballpark against the Cincinnati Reds. But first, Kalas needs a contract and wants to change his broadcast partners because he said his relationship has soured with longtime booth mate Chris Wheeler.

Any sports writer or sportscaster who has covered a title-clinching celebration in a pro team's locker room will confirm that it is one of the worst assignments imaginable. With champagne-spraying players releasing seasonlong tensions, it is almost impossible to get sensible responses to questions, or to stay dry. Following the Phillies' National League East-clinching Tuesday night in Pittsburgh, Chris Wheeler drew the unenviable duty of conducting the first interviews. Wearing a commemorative Phillies cap and T-shirt, Wheeler was caught up in the emotion of the celebration.

Phillies: For and against I just wanted to thank the Phillies for giving me the most entertaining season since '93. Watching this team come together and make a run at the playoffs makes me happy I renewed my season tickets back in '98 instead of giving them up as I had originally planned. I thought the team would never rebound from those poor seasons, but Larry Bowa has made me a believer. Vince "Moose" Latorre Clifton Heights I would like to thank the Phillies for getting the hopes of sports fans up high just to disappoint.

Chris Wheeler was playing golf when he suddenly stopped. "I asked myself, 'What am I doing here?' " Wheeler said. "It's Sunday morning: I'm not allowed to be here. " Wheeler, one of the primary Phillies announcers idled by the baseball strike now in its sixth day, said that, until now, he hadn't had a summer weekend off since 1981, when the last strike shut down baseball. "It's a weird feeling," he said. "I hate it. " The other members of the Phillies Four - Harry Kalas, Rich Ashburn and Andy Musser - all are, as Ashburn put it, "hanging around to see what happens.

Don Heller doesn't think you can have too much of a good thing. Heller, vice president and general manager of PRISM and SportsChannel Philadelphia, yesterday announced the hiring of five former Phillies to replace Jim Fregosi as analysts of Phillies games on SportsChannel during the remainder of the 1991 season. Former relief pitcher Kent Tekulve made his SportsChannel debut last night in the Phillies' 8-1 win in Montreal. Greg Gross, Jay Johnstone, Tug McGraw and Glenn Wilson will take turns providing color analysis in the 20 remaining games to be televised by SportsChannel this season.

There's trouble in the Phillies' broadcast booth. Harry Kalas, longtime legend in the booth and a 2002 inductee to the broadcaster division of the Baseball Hall of Fame, has made it clear he no longer wants to work on air with Chris Wheeler, his partner of 26 years. Their relationship has been less than warm for several years, although neither has said why. It's sad, because both are good guys. And both are passionate about the game. But it's not a close call: In the interest of Phillies broadcasts it might be better if they parted as partners.

Gaetano D. "Danny" Smedile, 90, of South Philadelphia, a retired shipyard rigger and sports fan who was a popular fixture at Veterans Stadium for more than 20 years, died Saturday, Jan. 14, of complications from seizures at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Smedile retired from the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in 1980. Several months later, his wife of 30 years, Rita Innaurato Smedile, had a debilitating stroke. As her caretaker, he searched for activities they could do together, said their son, Thomas.

Gaetano D. "Danny" Smedile, 90, of South Philadelphia, a retired shipyard rigger and sports fan who was a popular fixture at Veterans Stadium for more than 20 years, died Saturday, Jan. 14, of complications from seizures at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Smedile retired from the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in 1980. Several months later, his wife of 30 years, Rita Innaurato Smedile, had a debilitating stroke. As her caretaker, he searched for activities they could do together, said their son, Thomas.

HE WAS A storyteller at heart, and so, on a day when those who knew him told stories of their own, we must start with the man himself. It was 1998, and Harry Kalas was attempting to kick his cigarette habit. As a substitute, the legendary announcer had taken to fingering cigars in the booth. While attempting to explain the allure of his new habit to fellow broadcaster Chris Wheeler one afternoon, Kalas settled on what he felt was a rock-solid justification. Like all of the words that traveled through his gilded vocal chords, ink and paper don't do them justice.

Just before noon yesterday, Harry Kalas got off the Phillies team bus and walked into the visiting clubhouse at Nationals Park. As always, Kalas said something nice to everyone he encountered, then stopped, pulled out a pen and wrote down the lineup that had been posted on the wall. Lineup in hand, the Hall of Fame broadcaster rode the elevator to the press level and began preparing for a 3:05 p.m. game between the Phillies and Washington Nationals. He never got to call the game.

WASHINGTON - Just before noon yesterday, Harry Kalas got off the Phillies team bus and walked into the visiting clubhouse at Nationals Park. As always, Kalas said something nice to everyone he encountered, then stopped, pulled out a pen and wrote down the lineup that had been posted on the wall. Lineup in hand, the Hall of Fame broadcaster rode the elevator to the press level and began preparing for a 3:05 p.m. game between the Phillies and Washington Nationals. He never got to call the game.

WASHINGTON - Just before noon today, Harry Kalas got off the Phillies team bus and walked into the visiting clubhouse at Nationals Park. As always, Kalas said something nice to everyone he encountered, then stopped, pulled out a pen and wrote down the lineup which had been posted on the wall. Lineup in hand, the Hall of Fame broadcaster rode the elevator to the press level and began preparing for a 3 p.m. game between the Phillies and Washington Nationals. He never got to call the game.

Harry Kalas has been the Phillies' play-by-play broadcaster since 1971, and he equates the buzz entering this season to almost any he has been a part of. "I can't remember - perhaps in the late '70s - such anticipation for a baseball season," Kalas said. "Even that cast of characters in '93 that surprised us, the expectations weren't overwhelming entering the season. " Kalas would be excited whether the Phillies were contenders or not. And this year just as the team attempts to earn its first playoff berth since 1993, Kalas will also be facing a new challenge - working in a three-man booth for television.

Harry Kalas is in town and says he feels wanted. So, exhale. There has been speculation that the Phillies could be slowly trying to push Kalas, their Hall of Fame broadcaster, out of the booth. His contract expires after the season. How would the Phillies do it? Apparently, by pairing him for six innings on TV this season with Chris Wheeler, with whom he has a strained relationship. But the Phillies have said that their 2006 broadcasting lineup hasn't been set, and that they have no behind-the-scenes plans to cut Kalas loose after the season.

THANK YOU, Phillies! I have found the cure for my insomnia. Whenever I can't fall asleep, I play back Chris Wheeler and Larry Andersen's coverage of the Phillies game. I'm usually then snoring in about five minutes. To wake up, I have my alarm set to the voice of Harry Kalas, and I'm up refreshed, and ready for a brand-new day. Bruce Semigran Norristown

There's trouble in the Phillies' broadcast booth. Harry Kalas, longtime legend in the booth and a 2002 inductee to the broadcaster division of the Baseball Hall of Fame, has made it clear he no longer wants to work on air with Chris Wheeler, his partner of 26 years. Their relationship has been less than warm for several years, although neither has said why. It's sad, because both are good guys. And both are passionate about the game. But it's not a close call: In the interest of Phillies broadcasts it might be better if they parted as partners.